


A Warm Welcome Home

by TigerLily



Category: Proof of Life
Genre: Dino needs a hug, M/M, PTSD
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-04-01
Updated: 2017-04-01
Packaged: 2018-10-13 11:58:16
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,848
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10513311
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/TigerLily/pseuds/TigerLily
Summary: Dino comes home after finishing a mission to a pleasant surprise.





	

**Author's Note:**

  * For [lasairfhiona](https://archiveofourown.org/users/lasairfhiona/gifts).



Dino stepped off the plane and quickly strode up the gangway to the gate area before stepping aside and stretching. It had been a long and boring flight, but he was glad to be back on U.S. soil.

His last mission had been fairly successful, but it had given him time to contemplate retiring from the K&R business for good. He could join his lover in England and help him run the pub he had just recently bought.

He had to laugh at the thought of himself running a public house, but it wouldn’t be the craziest thing he had ever done.

He yawned and stretched again before deciding he needed to find something to snack on while he waited for his ride to show up.

*&*

“Ben, what did you do with Rowie?” Dino asked his friend as he tossed his duffel bag into the backseat of Ben’s car and slid into the passenger seat. He had been expecting his K&R partner to pick him up, so was surprised to see her husband instead.

“She caught a mission a few days after you left on yours,” Ben replied with a tired smile. “Hopefully, she’ll be home in the next week or so.”

“That good, huh?”

“It was rough going at first since the kidnapper didn’t want to negotiate with a woman, but she eventually won him over,” Ben explained as he pulled out into the traffic circling around the main airport terminal.

“I bet she did,” Dino lightly quipped before yawning. He and Rowie had practically grown up together, so he knew how persuasive she could be when she needed to be. “So how’s everybody else?”

“Everybody is good, and you are making small talk to keep yourself awake,” Ben pointed out in a dry tone. He had caught Dino’s yawn and knew his friend was fighting to stay awake until he got home.

“I slept on the plane,” Dino grumbled. He had slept on the plane, but not well and wasn’t in the mood to experience another bad dream. Suffering from PTSD was a pain in the ass.

“Not well,” Ben observed. “You want to talk about it?”

“I don’t, but I know I have to,” Dino reluctantly answered. He didn’t like talking about his dreams.

“I’m not going to push you.”

“I know that,” Dino admitted. He knew Ben wouldn’t push, because Ben was a vet like him and had first hand experience dealing with combat related mental trauma. They had met at their local VA hospital when Dino was visiting a friend who had been sent home from Iraq with a traumatic brain injury. “Give me a couple of hours, ok.”

“Okay,” Ben agreed. “So are you hungry?”

“I probably could eat a horse,” Dino replied just as his stomach reminded him it was empty with a loud gurgle. “Airline food is not for the faint of heart.”

“Neither are MREs,” Ben countered with a grimace. MREs were one of several things that he didn’t miss from his time in the Army.

“True,” Dino agreed. “But those would have been an improvement over what I have been eating.”

“Were we cooking without supervision again?”

“Not hardly,” Dino muttered. He knew he was a horrible cook and stayed the hell out of the kitchen. It was his client who hadn’t learned that lesson and he had to force himself to eat what she cooked while he negotiated the release of her husband from a band of rebels. “My client wasn’t a very good cook, but being a gentleman I ate what she made me.”

Ben softly chuckled when he heard Dino refer to himself as a gentleman. “Well, soon you’ll be winging your way into retirement where Terry can feed you on good English food until you bust a gut.”

“I have other things in mind to do with him besides eating his cooking,” Dino retorted with a smirk.

“Don’t want to know,” Ben tossed back.

Dino softly chuckled. He would let Ben get in the last word as he leaned back in his seat and closed his eyes as he gave into his body’s desire for some much needed sleep. He hoped he could catch a combat nap without dreaming about bad things.

*&*

Ben had driven most of the way from the airport listening to Dino’s soft snores content that his friend was getting some badly needed rest. He was amazed that his friend could still function normally when his PTSD reared its ugly head.

He parked the car in front of Dino’s apartment building and was reaching out to gently shake him awake when the redhead said, “I’m awake. I just don’t want to move.”

“I was planning on ordering take out from Lo Mein’s,” Ben told Dino knowing his friend would kill to get his hands on their pot stickers.

“That’s fighting dirty, Ben,” Dino grumbled, but dragged himself out of the car anyway.

“I learned from the best,” Ben reminded him as he tossed Dino’s duffel bag at him.

“Yes, you did,” Dino agreed with a grunt as he caught his duffel bag and slung it over his shoulder. “Besides, I need to call Terry and let him know I made it home in one piece.”

“He’ll appreciate that even though it’s o-dark thirty over there.”

“I guess it is Lo Mein’s and bad TV until I can call him at a decent time,” Dino groused as he turned to slog up the steps to his apartment building’s front door.

“Your enthusiasm just amazes me,” Ben quipped as he followed Dino inside.

“Bite me.”

“I’ll leave that to the professionals.”

“You’ve been unsupervised for too long,” Dino tossed back as he let himself into his apartment mildly surprised to discover that it was cleaner than the way he left it.

“Not as long as you have,” Ben pointed out as he closed the front door behind him. “And, before you ask, yes, I did come over and clean last week.”

“Thank you,” Dino said in appreciation. He didn’t like coming home to a dirty apartment, but he only had himself to blame for the mess, so it was nice when one of his friends would take it upon themselves to tidy up for him.

“You’re welcome,” Ben said not bothering to mention that he had restocked Dino’s cupboards and refrigerator. “So what do you want from Lo Mein’s besides their pot stickers?”

“Cream cheese wontons, but otherwise surprise me,” Dino answered as he headed toward his bedroom. “I’m going to go get cleaned up. I hate flying coach.”

“Poor baby,” Ben retorted as he headed for the kitchen and the stack of take-out menus that resided next to the microwave.

“Fuck you,” Dino tossed back before entering his bedroom and kicking the door closed.

Ben laughed, shook his head and went back to searching for Lo Mein’s take-out menu.

*&*

Dino emerged from his bedroom dressed in worn yet clean clothes scrubbing his head with a towel just as Ben closed the front door and turned with his arms loaded down with Chinese food. “God, that smells good,” he remarked as he tossed the towel back into his bedroom.

“I should think so,” Ben remarked with a wry grin. “I think I bought them out of all of our favorites.”

“Indulging while the cat is away, are we?” Dino teased as he helped Ben carry the food into the kitchen. Rowie had started a new diet before he had left on his mission, so he knew Ben must be suffering because he knew from past experience that Rowie could be a food nazi when it came to her diets.

“Damn Skippy,” Ben answered before biting into an egg roll that had fallen out of one of the bags. “I hate it when Rowie goes on a diet. I always end up being hungry all the time because of my fast metabolism.”

“Yeah, that does suck, but enjoy that fast metabolism now because Mother Nature will catch up to you when you are my age,” Dino cautioned as he pulled plates from the cabinet above the sink. He had put on a few pounds while he had been gone despite his client’s bad cooking and doing work around her house to keep from going stir crazy from boredom.

“Forty-five isn’t old,” Ben countered as he pulled various containers from the multitude of bags he had set on the table. “Besides, you can still put it away when you want to.”

“Yes,” Dino concurred. He set the plates on the counter as he watched his kitchen table disappear under the wave of food thinking he was going to have a lot of leftovers. “It just takes longer to get back in shape, and we all know what a lazy ass I am.”

“Here,” Ben said handing Dino a pot sticker. “And soon you’ll be properly motivated to keep your girlish figure.”

“Jerk,” Dino retorted before biting into the pot sticker. He wasn’t in the mood to get into a battle of wits of a sexual nature since it made him miss his lover that much more.

“So I’ve been told,” Ben countered with a cheeky grin causing Dino to stick his tongue out at him. “And, that’s so adult, Devlin.”

Dino shrugged, grabbed another pot sticker and wandered back into the living room.

Ben shook his head. Some days it wasn’t worth the effort to have a battle of wits with his friend.

*&*

Dino had flopped on his couch and was busy channel surfing when Ben came into the living room with two plates full of food. He dropped the remote to accept one of the plates. “Thanks,” he said setting the plate down on the coffee table before picking up a cream cheese wonton and plopping it into his mouth.

“You’re welcome, I think,” Ben replied as he made himself comfortable in the dilapidated wing backed chair Dino kept around because Terry loved it. “You find anything good on?”

“Not yet.”

“You got a few movies recorded on the dvr.”

“I thought I deleted those before I left,” Dino said around another cream cheese wonton.

“Not those kind of movies, you perv,” Ben grumbled barely refraining from rolling his eyes at Dino.

“I know,” Dino admitted with a sly grin. “But, sometimes you make it too easy to yank your chain.”

“I’m going to go get a beer,” Ben said as he stood up not agreeing with Dino about being easy to rile. “You want one?”

“Yeah, I’ll take one,” Dino answered as he licked his fingers clean. “But, not that microbrew shit you drink.”

“You wouldn’t know a good beer if a bottle of it was slapped up side your hard head,” Ben retorted good-naturedly. He was use to Dino ragging on him about his choice of beer.

“I’m a conisurer of finer alcoholic beverages, thank you very much.”

“You would drink scotch with everything, if we let you.”

“Maybe, maybe not,” Dino hedged not wanting to admit how close he had come in the past to using scotch as a crutch.

Ben shook his head in disbelief. He went into the kitchen to retrieve their beers while Dino returned to his half-hearted attempt at channel surfing.

*&*

Having finally given up finding anything decent to watch on TV, Dino picked one of the movies he had on his dvr. It ended up being a cheesy romantic comedy, but it was distracting enough that he finally felt himself letting go of his need to be aware of everything and everyone.

A loud knock on his front door startled him out of a light doze. “What the hell?” he grumbled. He was actually having a nice dream for once.

“It’s your homecoming surprise,” Ben explained as he walked out of the kitchen to answer the door. He had just finished putting away the leftover Chinese food.

“Surprise?” Dino asked as he sat up and turned to face the front door just as Ben opened it to reveal his lover standing in the hallway.

“Surprise, mate,” Terry said as he entered the apartment.

“What the hell are you doing here?” Dino snapped. He had been planning to call Terry once Ben had gone home. Too early or too late be damned.

“Ben didn’t tell you I was coming?” Terry countered as he settled into his chair.

“Wouldn’t have been a surprise if I had,” Ben explained knowing very well if he told Dino that Terry was coming for a visit his friend would have bounced off the walls until he saw him. “And on that note, I’m out of here. Have fun getting reacquainted and no I don’t want the details.”

“I should give you blow by blow details for keeping quiet about this,” Dino groused. “You know how I don’t like surprises.”

“You won’t,” Ben countered.

“Of course he won’t,” Terry said. “He’s afraid of your wife.”

“Aren’t we all?”

“Good point,” Terry agreed with a wry grin. He had been on the receiving end of Rowie’s temper a time or two, and always erred on the side of caution when she was on a tear. “Now, say good bye, Ben.”

“Good bye,” Ben said with a smirk. “Call me when you come up for air.”

Dino picked up a pillow and threw at Ben muttering, “Get out of here, you jerk.”

Ben caught the pillow and tossed it to Terry. He sketched a salute and hurried out the door before Dino could throw anything else at him.

Terry chuckled and tossed the pillow back to Dino. “Miss me?”

“I was going to call you when I got in, but Ben nixed the idea suggesting that I’d wake you up if I did,” Dino replied catching the pillow and not really answering Terry’s question.

“It would have spoiled your surprise.”

“Oh well,” Dino said with an indifferent shrug of his shoulders. “Not really into them to begin with.”

“You never did answer my question,” Terry prompted. “Did you miss me?”

“Like a hole in my head.”

“Asshole.”

Dino chuckled. “Of course, I missed you. Now, come give me some sugar.”

“Tacky bastard,” Terry groaned, but joined Dino on the couch and pulled him into a kiss.

*&*

Terry ran his fingers through Dino’s hair causing the redhead to purr into his chest. “You big softie,” he gently teased.

“Whatever, pal,” Dino half-heartedly retorted. He was too comfortable to take offense to anything Terry wanted to call him. “Just keep doing that.”

“I’d love to, but I’m starving,” Terry told Dino.

“Got plenty of leftover Chinese,” Dino said reluctantly sitting up, so Terry could get up and raid the kitchen if he wanted to.

“Lo Mein’s?”

“Yes,” Dino answered not surprised Terry remembered the name of his favorite Chinese restaurant. Terry had a knack for remembering trivial things.

“Good,” Terry murmured as he stood up and stretched. “You want anything?”

“I could eat,” Dino replied as he too stood up and stretched. His couch wasn’t exactly the most comfortable thing to lie on, but one didn’t knock hand-me-downs. You just dealt with them.

“That was enthusiastic,” Terry teased as he walked into the kitchen to peruse the leftovers in the fridge.

“What is it with everyone knocking my enthusiasm?” Dino grumbled. “Just because I’m not jumping up and down doesn’t mean I’m not interested.”

“No need to get grumpy, mate,” Terry retorted. “I was just teasing you since I’ve rarely known you not to be enthusiastic about food.”

“I’m not grumpy,” Dino retorted as he reached in and pulled out a container of pork fried rice. “I’m just horny.”

“You and your one track mind,” Terry softly chuckled. He could always count on his lover’s insatiable desire for sex.

“Whatever, pal,” Dino snarked before grabbing a fork from the silverware drawer and shuffling back into the livingroom.

Terry shook his head and went about fixing himself something to eat from the leftovers. Dino’s erratic mood swings rarely bothered him because he knew Dino loved him as much as he loved the red head.

*&*

“How long you going to be in town for?” Dino asked between bites of pork fried rice.

“For a few days,” Terry answered once he was settled in his chair since he couldn’t trust Dino not to steal food off his plate. “Henry is between terms so I’ve got him looking after things.”

“Better than Wyatt,” Dino remarked. He considered Wyatt a good friend, but he knew from long experience that the man was a lush and couldn’t be trusted around alcohol.

“Fair dinkum.”

“Anything you want to do besides getting reacquainted?”

“Maybe,” Terry replied. “Because if you had your way, we would be holed up in here fucking like rabbits.”

“You make that sound like a bad thing,” Dino retorted with a dramatic sigh.

“You can’t be that horny?”

“Try me,” Dino challenged.

“Shut up and eat,” Terry growled. Dino was going to be the death of him one day.

Dino chuckled and went back to eating. He had his lover for the next few days, so life was good


End file.
